Thursday, 15 December 2016

PQASSO Essentials pilot

PQASSO helps third sector organisations take a systematic look at what they do, identify areas where they are doing well and not so well, and decide exactly where improvements are needed.

PQASSO covers all aspects of an organisation's work including governance, planning, leadership and management, managing people, managing money and outcomes and impact. Once an organisation has implemented PQASSO it can apply for the PQASSO Quality Mark, the external accreditation for PQASSO, which shows that the organisation has achieved the PQASSO quality standard at a particular level.

PQASSO Essentials is intended to help smaller, third sector groups and organisations that:

May never have reviewed their whole group or organisation and that want to do a basic 'health check' to know which areas they need to develop and strengthen

Want to start to introduce and embed quality and continuous improvement in their work

Need a framework to support the development of their group or organisation, and

Christmas has come early for some and we are delighted to report that 13 Powys groups have been awarded funding through the Big Lottery Celebrate grant. A total of £20, 561 pounds has been awarded for a fabulous variety of celebrations in local communities.

The overall focus of Joseph Rowtree's Sustainable Futures Programme is on developing and promoting sustainable, low-carbon alternatives to the existing and dominant consumerist and growth-based model.

The Trust is interested in funding work which:

o Is about removing problems through radical solutions, and not simply about making problems easier to live with;o Has a clear sense of objectives, and of how to achieve them;o Is innovative and imaginative; ando Where the grant has a good chance of making a difference.

Organisations and individuals should be undertaking work that can be applied nationally. This refers to projects that seek to make positive change across the UK as a whole, or across one or more of its member countries - England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Funding is available for work in the following areas:

1. Better economics - the Trust will fund work that:

o Explores and promotes ways that well-being and sustainability, rather than traditional forms of economic growth, could be placed at the heart of public policy;o Explores and promotes mechanisms that could better align business and investor behaviour with environmental sustainability and the long-term public interest;o Researches and develops innovations and new practical models of enterprise that can be embedded within community practice;o Challenges future investment in, or subsidies for, fossil fuels.

2. Beyond consumerism - the Trust will fund work that:

o Campaigns, initiatives and mechanisms which encourage radical, large scale shifts in behaviour and culture away from consumerism towards more sustainable ways of living;o Exploration of initiatives and models which promote positive alternatives to consumerism for a more fulfilled life;o Work which engages people individually and collectively in holistic and value-led approaches to transformed behaviour and lifestyle, as an alternative to consumerism.

3. New voices - the Trust will fund work that:

o Campaigns and movements that give marginalised or under-represented groups a voice on issues of environmental and economic justice;o Initiatives that encourage organisations from outside the traditional environmental field to get involved in environmental justice;o Networks that link and support local environmental justice groups;o The replication of innovative local projects regionally or nationally.

No minimum or maximum amount of grant is specified by the Trust.

Under the Sustainable Future Programme, the Trust will not fund:

o Conservation projects;o Anti-consumerism campaigns which simply exhort people to be less consumerist, rather than encourage behaviour change resulting in sustainable living;o Measures that are limited to mitigating against the effects of climate change rather than leading to long-term change;o Academic research and books, except as an integral part of policy, campaigning work or leading to practical change in enterprises or community action;o Larger, older national charities which have an established constituency of supporters and substantial levels of reserves;o Statutory bodies;o For-profit organisations;o Medical research;o Academic research, except as an integral part of policy and campaigning work that is central to the Trust's areas of interest;o Building, buying or repairing buildings;o Business development or job creation schemes;o Service provision, including providing care, support or training services, such as for elderly people, children and young people, people with learning difficulties, people with physical disabilities, mental health service users, refugees or asylum seekers;o Housing and homelessness;o The arts, except where a project is specifically concerned with issues of interest to the Trust;o Travel or adventure projects;o Educational bursaries, including graduate and post-graduate studies;o The personal support of individuals in need;o General appeals;o Work which the Trust believes should be funded from statutory sources, or which has been in the recent past;o Work which has already been undertaken;o Local or national work anywhere outside the UK.

Grants are made to a range of organisations. It is not necessary to be a registered charity to apply to the Trust, however, the Trust can only support work which is legally charitable as defined in UK law.

Tuesday, 13 December 2016

The Shackleton Foundation aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged young people by supporting ambitious and inspirational leaders with innovative and scalable social ideas that may be seen as high risk but also with high potential.

Proposed projects should be long-lasting and far-reaching with the potential to provide solutions to intractable social problems faced by young people.

The term 'social entrepreneurship' refers to the development of new models or approaches to social problems with significant potential for breakthrough social impact. Grants are made to individual Leaders and not to teams or organisations. There is a preference for Leaders to be running charities, social enterprises or not-for-profit organisations.

The programme offers assistance with practical aspects of starting up a social venture. This includes up to £10,000 in seed-funding and a year of support from a dedicated mentoring team, with expert advice on maximising impact and building a sustainable business model.

The funding is usually awarded as a single grant of £10,000 to provide the funding needed to get an idea started.

The Foundation is looking for:

o Leaders with entrepreneurial ideas/inspirational projects capable of making a difference;o Opportunities to support Leaders setting up their own social ventures with financially sustainable projects with the potential to provide solutions to the problems faced by disadvantaged young people;o Early-stage ‘social enterprises’; ando Leaders that they believe have the potential to make their ideas work.

o Be innovative and fresh;o Fulfil a clear need and demand;o Be in the first two years of development;o Have a real social impact;o Have well-defined outputs and goals;o Have the potential for real growth and sustainability.

The beneficiaries of the work must be young people predominantly based in the UK.

The following are not eligible for funding:

o Projects that are past the stage of being an early-stage start-up;o Teams or organisations.

Applications may be submitted throughout the year and will be considered at quarterly meetings of the Foundation.

Monday, 12 December 2016

The Third Sector Partnership Council (TSPC) Working Group has commissioned a survey to gather the views of TSPC network members on the strategic, cross-cutting priorities for influencing during the fifth Welsh Government. Feedback will help the TSPC Working Group to choose the two most popular issues to focus on for 2017/18.

The survey is open from 12 December 2016 – 13 January 2017. The results will be analysed and considered by the TSPC working group in spring 2017 and progress will be reported through TSPC networks and via WCVA’s website and Network Wales magazine.

You can also read the blog about taking stock and forward planning for the Third Sector Scheme 2017/18.

Here is a summary of some of the ways that you can get involved with the day and we'll be in touch again soon with more on each of these!

Match funding

Join Localgiving's 'Grow Your Tenner' where they will be matching one-time donations by up to £10 and regular monthly donations by up to £10 a month for the first three months. Each local group taking part in the campaign is eligible to claim up to £2,500 of match funding! This has been contributed to by a private philanthropist and the Office forCivil Society.

On December 16th #GiveMe5will double the value of 1,000 x £5 donations made over a 24hr period. To take part, charities simply need to be a member of Localgiving, which is entirely FREE for Small Charities Coalition Members!

To take part in these opportunities you need to have an active Localgiving membership. This normally costs £72 per year but Localgiving are generously giving away 12 months free membership to Small Charities Coalition members until then end of 2016. To sign up click here and enter code SCC2016.​For more information head on over to Localgiving's website.

Tesco has announced that starting on Thursday (1 December) its customers can vote each month for their favourite community project.

Bags of Help is Tesco’s local community awards programme where the money raised from the 5p bag levy in Tesco stores is being used to fund community projects across Great Britain. A public vote determines which groups will get a grant of up to £5,000, £2,000 or £1,000.

The announcement is a shift from Tesco’s previous policy of awarding grants every nine months through the Bags of Help initiative. A monthly vote means that thousands more community projects in England, Scotland and Wales will benefit. Voting will now take place from the first of the month to the last Saturday of the month, with projects changing monthly.

The funding is intended for not-for-profit organisations with projects that deliver physical environmental improvement and encourage the use and long-term sustainability of outdoor spaces. Projects include volunteer training, physical improvements of open spaces, equipment purchases, community events and sports and leisure activities. Projects can be a stand-along project or a discrete, self-contained part of a larger scheme or part of a phased project.

An in-store vote each month determines which projects are funded. Three local community projects will be voted on in Tesco stores each month across 200 regions throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

In each region, the three projects that receive the most votes from all stores in their region will receive a grant awarded for first, second and third place. According to Groundwork, which administers the fund, more than 7,000 projects will receive funding through this scheme each year.

Applications will be accepted from not-for-profit organisations in England, Scotland and Wales as long as they are constituted and have a governing document.

Commenting on the change, Tesco’s UK CEO Matt Davies said:

“Over the last year, the money raised from our customers buying single-use carrier bags has resulted in £24 million being awarded to over 2,400 local community projects – all chosen by our customers.

"I’ve seen first-hand the diversity of brilliant projects, ranging from outdoor classrooms, sports facilities, community gardens, play areas and everything in-between.

"In order for even more local projects to benefit from this money, customers will now be invited to vote for their favourite community projects every time they shop with us."

The programme is managed by Groundwork, an environmental improvement charity, in England and Wales and in partnership with greenspace Scotland in Scotland.

Thursday, 1 December 2016

The Woman to Woman Fund has been created by Rosa with funding from the Tampon Tax Fund which was set up to support women’s charities through the VAT raised on sanitary products.

Rosa has been awarded £2.2 million by HM Treasury for a programme of grants and support to small grassroots women’s groups.

The Fund welcomes proposals from women’s organisations that:

o Address the critical needs of women and girls that miss out the most, including: marginalised populations, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) women, lesbian, bisexual or transgender women and girls, women and girls with disabilities, older women, homeless women, survivors of gender violence, women in prison and ex-offenders, and other underserved and disadvantaged groups of women; and
o Operate in less economically resilient towns, cities and rural areas within the UK.

Grants of between £5,000 and £25,000 are available. It is expected that approximately 100 groups will receive funding. Match funding is not required.

The funding can be used to support project costs and/or core costs, including costs related to the day to day running of an organisation such as salaries, rent, costs relating to volunteers, costs relating to staff development and other general running costs.

Where there is evidence of need or an innovative new approach, the funding may be used for new projects that benefit the lives of women and girls.

The work must fit into one of Rosa’s four pillars which underpin the issues facing women and girls today, namely:

o Be a women's sector organisation;
o Be a charitable organisation (although it is not necessary to be a registered charity, the group's activities must be charitable and legal);
o Be a local organisation, which is not part of a national enterprise;
o Have an income of less than £100,000 per year or employ less than two full-time paid members of staff;
o Have a written governing document, such as a constitution or set of rules;
o Have a governing body with at least three unrelated members;
o Have a UK-based bank or building society account in the name of the organisation, with at least two unrelated signatories.

There will be three funding rounds, all during 2017:

o Round 1 is now open with a deadline of 9am on Monday 16 January 2017;
o Round 2 will open in May 2017; and
o Round 3 will open in September 2017.

There is a two-stage application process. An online application form and guidelines can be found on the Rosa website.